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Drum Brakes - Clubman Estate

Started by Norris73 , May 01 2016 04:39 PM

Best Answer cambiker71 , 03 May 2016 - 10:26 PM

Lock the adjusters up solid and check the pedal movement again, if it's ok and hard then it's bled and needs adjusting correctly, if not leave the adjusters locked up (all of them, front and rear) and bleed using the old fashioned BMC two man method..

fill the reservoir.

get an assistant to help

open the furthest from the master cylinders bleed nipple (start at the rear from scratch) and get your assistant to press the pedal SLOWLY down and hold it.

count 10 seconds

tighten the bleed nipple and get your assistant to release the pedal.

count 10 seconds

check the reservoir level

Repeat until you have fresh fluid and no air bubbles then move to the next nearest bleed nipple and start the above procedure again then repeat until all is bled and the pedal is good, then readjust the brakes all round, check the pedal travel after adjusting each brake, if it goes away, you then know which one is the problem

Adjusting the front ones is the most difficult, to me it sounds like you may have only one shoe adjusted correctly on each side but not the other one (gives a long pedal but still feels like its slightly binding and adjusted correctly when you turn the wheel by hand) also remember there will always be a bit more pedal travel with new linings until they have run in a bit, readjust them again after a couple of hundred miles of normal use and then they will stay adjusted for longer.

it's important to count ten seconds each time as above, after pressing the pedal the ten second pause allows line pressure to subside, the pause after releasing the pedal allows the reservoir to fill fully together with allowing the lines negative pressure to subside.

This method has never failed me with bleeding drum brakes (not just on minis either!) you just need a little patience though

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17 replies to this topic

#16 Norris73

Mini Mad

TMF+ Member
105 posts

Posted 04 May 2016 - 06:59 PM

Hi All,

Just a final update on this - I now have brakes and they are good!

Had a mate over to lend a hand this afternoon. I printed off your instructions cambiker71 and followed them to the word!, I chuckled to myself after following your first sentence and finding the pedal to be solid right at the top of its movement.

Despite revisiting the shoe adjustment many, many, many times I think this time I finally got it right. The passenger side adjusted up nicely - what I would say when we say a light rubbing of the shoe I would say its slightly more than this. I got a better feel for it by using a stubby 5/16" spanner and feeling as I turned the adjuster the shoes inside the drum move and take up the tension just as they are a 5/8ths of a nats whisker off the drums surface. This feels a fair bit of resistance without the wheel on, but once the wheel is fitted the wheel spins about one revolution before slowly coming to a stop.

The issue I think was largely with the drivers side front, I found that one adjuster needed very little movement from a locked drum to free spinning, where the other needed not far off half a turn! On removing the drum I found the shoes not centered properly, I tapped one of the shoe with the palm of my hand to square it up, replaced the drum and asked my assistant to pump the pedal a couple of times to center everything back up. Now when trying the adjusters they were relatively even between the pair and it adjusted better.

As I was at it I re adjusted the rear brakes, it seemed every wheel I adjusted the pedal just got better and better.

I would just like to say many thanks to cambiker71 your instructions were clear and 100% spot on!

Thanks,

Olie